Like most Crazyguy bloggers, we try to post a brief summary of the trip, citing what seemed to be the best and the worst of the route. In fact, we usually go one step further, with separate info on the costs, the percentage of motels or hotels that "had" to be used, gear successes and failures, and so on. This page is the general summary or impression bit.

Our main motive for Going to Florida was the same as that of zillions of Canadians (mostly Quebecers), to find a snow free place for outdoor activities in winter. Actually, according to a 25 year old article in the New York Times, more than 1 million Canadians can be found in Florida in mid winter. According to the NYT, that left only 24 million back home to tend the heating fires. Well, the population of Canada is now 35 million, but if the proportions remained the same, there were a million and a half Canadians down there with us this time, but still for the same reason.

Because Florida is only sub-tropical, it still can get awfully chilly, especially towards the north, while Miami and south seems quite safely balmy, except for periodic violent wind and rain storms, even in winter, which is the dry season. Last year, when we started our Southern Tier in Key West, we had 40 degree C temperatures on the Tamiami Trail, but close to zero around Tallahassee. That is why we started out one month later this year, and stuck around the south longer. This worked out, and the weather was fine for camping the whole time (assuming one could ever find a camp spot.)

Our second main reason for going to Florida was the wildlife. This is remarkable, because at 141 people per square km Florida is almost 50% more densely populated than California. (For the record, the population density of Canada is 4, while that of Mongolia is 2 - making Canada look crowded!). The wildlife interest in Florida is concentrated in the Everglades and to some extent the west coast north of Tampa. As we discussed in the blog, there is immense anxiety and conflict over the shrinking of the Everglades and the huge wildlife losses that have already occurred. However the ecosystem was so unique and so vast that even the diminished version is unique and vast.

When we left, we promised Avi's teacher Ms. Wilson, that we would search out whatever organisms we could in Florida, and bring back a report. Right now we have no idea how many different things we saw, but it was lots. In raw numbers, it was way more than what you will easily spot on a cycle through, for example, the Canadian Rockies.

With all the warnings we had heard about people being armed and dangerous in Florida, we ran in to no overt aggression. In fact people seemed very friendly, and this extended to all races and ethnicities. True, you don't think you will get hit a by a truck, until you do, and you don't think you will be shot, robbed, or mugged until it happens. We are just reporting, though, that it didn't happen, and (unlike the truck) didn't feel like it would happen.

Far from feeling threatened, we ran in to some really fine people. There were Marilyn and Ed Dennison, who put us up in Fort Lauderdale, Michel, and Gaetane Bechard, who took us around Key West, John and Kelly - with their boat in Fort Myers, and Ed and Nancy Schultz, who picked us off the trail for a day of fun at Homosassa. We also think of Dave Patel and Vinnie and Mina of the Travellers and Apollo motels near Fort St John. These three and Mike, the taxi driver, went out of their ways to help us when we needed it.

We especially think of these motel owners, because of the racist and mean signs we did see on other motels: "American Owned". That just makes our blood boil!

Turning to the actual cycling, we found the route down to Key West to be quite good. Although traffic could be heavy, there was always a bikeway or at least a paved shoulder. The bikeway had a tendency to appear and disappear without notice, or to cross the busy highway, but something was always available. On the other hand, there was the stretch from Florida City to Key largo, where you are trapped on your paved shoulder by fences, and riding beside quite heavy traffic.

Generally, if you are bugged by traffic and noise, you don't want to cycle anywhere in Florida.

One slight area of relief, and one that did figure in our decision to come, was the unusual (for the USA) number of rail trail or dedicated bike paths in the state. We particularly enjoyed the Van Fleet and the Withlacoochie trails. The problem is, these and the other trails are regarded as being there for fun single day recreation use. Each does not particularly connect to anything else. Still, somebody (but not us) might enjoy using a car to reach a bunch of nice day rides. We found a book of these, by Tom Oswald. It's frustrating, because it lacks state or regional overview maps to help locate the rides, and it even does not have an index, which would be useful if you already knew the name of a potential ride. Google Maps in bicycle route mode would be the primary tool if you wanted to pilot yourself around Florida.

Of course, there are always the routes set out by the Adventure Cycling Association (ACA): the Southern Tier Florida section, the Atlantic Coast Florida section, and the Florida Connector. These are ok, and feel sort of "official", but we can never be sure of what criteria ACA has applied to choosing the routings, and of course since this is the USA, often nothing ACA could choose would be generally accepted as "safe".

Finally, (and for us it really was "final") there is the question of no shoulder roads. We have the general impression that ACA will choose a quiet no shoulder road over a busier road that does have a shoulder. And then there is the no shoulder road down to Flamingo, in the national park, and the one to the visitor complex at the Kennedy Space Centre.

The Flamingo road was our longest opportunity to observe driver behaviour on these roads. When drivers come upon cyclists sharing "their" road they have several options. They could slow down, move to the passing lane, and ease by. Hah! That would be about one in a thousand (tops). From there, depending on oncoming traffic they could do different variations. Most common would be to move just slightly left within the lane and to fly by with unchanged speed. And yes, admittedly, a fair proportion will move partially to the passing lane, if and only if there is no opposing car coming. A fun variant is to move to the passing lane and floor it, risking a head on collision, and duck back in ahead of the cyclists.

On the Flamingo road all these behaviours made us nervous, but it was not a game changer. On the Kennedy road, well we see what happened. But there, the sun and the traffic volume were extra factors.

When it comes to camping and places to stay, motels in south Florida (and particularly Key West) are double or triple priced, except when they have redoubled their price for a special event. Camping (tenting) places are rare and costly too. There are lots of state parks, and if you can reserve a year in advance there may be something to them. $28 for a tent spot in a state park is a rock bottom price. We did pay, however, $14 for an unserviced spot at the "rustic" Kate's Fish Camp. Generally speaking, to fight it out with hoards of winter tourists for a place to stay, you need lots of dollars.

In summary, would we go back to Florida? Should you cycle in Florida? Well, yes, in the Keys if you can afford the accommodation, and across the Tamiami. Beyond that, maybe one is reduced to finding day rides by car. We have heard tell of a bikeway (the $50 million 275 mile Coast to Coast Connector) under development from Tampa in a west to east orientation, to be completed in several years. Maybe Florida should send us a postcard when they have that done.

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Florida Pros and Cons

Pros

No snow
Birds, alligators, manatees
Quality fresh food at Publix supermarket chain
Some rail trails
Easy access by air to Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Fort Myers, etc. etc.
Lots of motels
Lots of state parks
Most roads have paved shoulders
Publix and Winn Dixie, good grocery stores with many branches

Cons

Noisy traffic in most places
No system of interconnected bikeways
High accommodation costs
Rain, mosquito, hurricane season not an option
No shoulder roads in a few key places
No bicycle culture
Unhealthful food offerings at gas station convenience stores